It is mostly about stories on the Korean people’s struggles against the U. S. bases in Korea. Hope many of you find some clues and sources here. Please just be kind and fair to the source.많은 분들께서 여기에서 단서들과 자료들을 찾길 바랍니다. 다만 단서와 자료의 기원에 대해 친절하고 공정하게 표기해 주시면 감사하겠읍니다.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Text Fwd: US Defense Firms Considers Transparency Pledge

Representatives from U.S. defense firms doing business here have discussed the idea of submitting a declaration of transparency to Cheong Wa Dae, amid Seoul's crackdown on irregular weapons acquisition deals, an industry source said Friday.

During a meeting at the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) in Korea in Seoul, Tuesday, some of the executive officers complained that the proposed policy to fight corruption in arms deals was too rigid and not realistic, the source said, requesting anonymity.

Participants included representatives from Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and General Electric, he said.

"The representatives were engaged in a debate over arms acquisition policy that has been proposed by the government," the source told The Korea Times.

"They put forward the idea of presenting a pledge of transparency to the presidential office as part of anti-corruption efforts but failed to reach an agreement."

In recent months, President Lee Myung-bak and other government officials have called for a new arms-buying mechanism, citing rampant corruption in arms contracts such as overblown commissions for purchasing arms overseas, inflated unit costs and the leakage of classified military information.

Against this backdrop, Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said late last year in a report to President Lee that the government would reduce the amount of arms bought through the roughly 600 arms agents who do business in the country.

Instead of such commercial sales, which currently account for 65 percent of procurement, the ministry will encourage more government-to-government foreign military acquisition programs, the minister said.

Officially, the arms agents receive about 3-5 percent in commissions from procurement spending, but industry officials said their actual take is much higher, particularly in large deals. So the government wants to introduce a standard price cap on the payments.

"Most of the participants at the AMCHAM meeting discussed ways of meeting the new standards, but some of them complained of the Korean government's rigid approach to the issue," said the source.

A Lockheed Martin executive officer said the current commission payments rate is quite low, so agents sometimes engage in behind-the-scenes deals.

He argued that reducing the number of agents would not be a fundamental solution in that context.

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About the Site

The site is managed by an artist living in the South Korea. The photo in the profile is the children in Osan, near the Pyeongtaek where the planned US military base hub in the north east Asia and a large US air base exists. They are the children of a teacher who manages the Children Peace School there. As a part of the class programs, the children in the class drew and wrote in a cloth, their wishes of the peaceful unification of Korea some day.